1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and system of providing switched broadcast television (SBT).
2. Background Art
Some cable companies have adopted switched broadcast television (SBT) as a method of plant capacity expansion. SBT differs from traditional broadcasting in that the number of transmitted channels at any one time is usually much less than the actual number of channels available within a particular channel lineup. In order to maximize spectrum savings and the performance benefits of SBT, the channel lineup of a switched tier is typically selected so that the least popular channels represent the long tail of the rating curve while the more popular channels are carried on a broadcast tier.
In a switched digital broadcast architecture, the channels to be switched broadcasted typically are fixed and pre-determined. This can be problematic since channel popularity tends to vary from market to market and at different times of day.